Live From Paris 2024: NBC Olympics Mark Lazarus, Rick Cordella and Molly Solomon on the Success of the Paris Games Lazarus says Billion Dollar Lab drives ad sales but also lays foundation for future live events By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, August 2, 2024 - 4:27 am
Print This Story
The past three Olympic Games, in South Korea, Japan, and China, challenged the NBC Olympics team (and viewers) with vast time zone differences and, of course, the Covid pandemic. So nearly everyone was waiting to see how the Paris Games would do not only ratings wise but in terms of an actual event with crowds at full capacity and one of the world's most beautiful cities as a backdrop.
On Thursday afternoon in Paris key NBC executives involved with the Games, Mark Lazarus, Chairman NBCUniversal Media Group; Rick Cordella, President, NBC Sports, and Molly Solomon, Executive Producer and President of NBC Olympics Production, held a media call to discuss all of those things and more with the media.
Lazarus said that the enthusiasm in Paris for the Olympics is reminiscent of the London 2012 Games and that with average viewership of 34 million viewers in the U.S. (up 79% from the Tokyo Games in 2021) NBC is off to a great start on TV and streaming.
The view from the NBC Olympics Primetime and Today Show sets is about as iconic as a view can get.
Driving that success was targeted marketing and promotion of the athletes, Paris, and Team USA.
As a result, NBC stations have been delivering big numbers for all the athletic competition, as well as their local news and all of their shoulder programming, he said.
And the streaming side has also found success.
At this point, we've got more than eight billion streaming minutes and counting with still plenty of time to continue to grow big numbers on that, he said. And speaking of billions, our ad sales has been very strong [and this is] our biggest ad sales total ever.
With the athletic competitions taking place six hours ahead of the East Coast back home the effort around Primetime coverage is unique and Lazarus credits the team for creating two shows at once: following the live action during the day and then creating the primetime show which airs in the U.S. when the city of lights is asleep and resting up for the next day.
It's a really complex piece of work, says Lazarus.
Explains Solomon: Every time you have an Olympics, you get a new time zone, a new puzzle, really, to put together. And we've gone back in time to remind ourselves that America, it doesn't matter if they know the results. They want to know the stories of the athletes and how it played out.
And so that's why the prime time shows, I think, are resonating. You can watch live in the afternoon if you're a sports fan and want a quick hit of it. But when you come back in prime time, you get to see how it all happens.
Mark Lazarus says the dedicated NBC Olympics production team, nearly 3,000 people strong, is driving the success NBC is finding with viewers and advertisers.
The top storyline for U.S. viewers has, clearly, been the performance of the American women's gymnastics team and women's all-around gold medalist Simone Biles. And the way NBC Olympics produced the gymnastics coverage is a perfect example of the live/not-live workflow. The gymnastics events end around 8 pm in Paris which is 2 pm on the East Coast, giving the team there some time to re-package it in the most compelling way possible.
If you've ever watched gymnastics live, it's pretty darn complex and complicated, says Solomon. But we're able to take a few hours to really lay out how it happened and the stories of the athletes [for primetime].
Cordella said Solomon and the team have done a fabulous job of taking prime time and doing something different with it that get viewers to tune in even if they know the results.
Historically the fear has been if results were known people would tune out and go somewhere else, says Cordella. But when you add the entertainment level that we've added to the prime-time show, we're seeing people come back and see it in a different light. We added context around big events, so if you saw Simone and the team win the medal on Tuesday, you're still happy to come back in the evening to see it again.
The Social Media Effect
There was a time, not too long ago, when the perception was that social media and its need for short-form content like highlights would negatively impact TV ratings, especially for events that have already taken place. But Cordella says products like Gold Zone on Peacock, Watch with Alex Cooper, and NBC's collaborations with YouTube and social media platform stars shows a different approach. The goal was to make the 7,000 hours of content sign in a new way on social media.
Molly Solomon has led the effort to turn the NBC Olympics Primetime programming slate more compelling for viewers who may already know the results of the competitions they are watching.
Added Solomon: I think we've very much leaned into the fact that if things are happening on social and you have unique content on social, it all flows through to promoting the Olympics and what's happening. And we really tried to integrate social into our broadcast as well because that's how we all experience media.
She pointed to coverage of French swimmer Leon Marchand's double gold on Wednesday night as an example of how the NBC Olympics team is using social media.
Our creators culled all of the reactions across Paris, and that wasn't possible without doubling down on creators and giving access to what's happening in France on social media, she said. I think it's really paid off in our broadcast presentation.
Lazarus said that social media and streaming is about distilling down th
North America Stories
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Witbe brings its AI-native testing and monitoring infrastructure to Amsterdam: demonstrations on real devices, a peer-reviewed technical paper in the conference...
23/07/2026
Quickplay, Caretta Research, Evergent, and Yospace have announced that the renowned IBC Pride Happy Hour will once again bring the vibe and fun back to IBC on F...
23/07/2026
At IBC2026, Interra Systems will present this year's focus: operational AI at scale for QC, monitoring, and captioning workflows. The industry has moved pas...
23/07/2026
Illusionfx is finally coming!
Alex Perea July 23, 2026
0 Comments
The new website is now live to mark the occasion.
Since the last update, feedback h...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
21/07/2026
In a time of disarray in regional sports broadcasting, the league will provide c...
Live From Paris 2024: NBC Olympics Mark Lazarus, Rick Cordella and Molly Solomon on the Success of the Paris Games Lazarus says Billion Dollar Lab drives ad sales but also lays foundation for future live events By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
